My debut as a Marathon Maniac was a raving success!
The course has a 5 hour cut off and my previous best was 5:24 so I was seriously considering the early start. While discussing this with my chiropractor I mentioned that I was worried about my hips, as they had been hurting me lately to which he replied, "Oh, they feel fine." (this statement reminds me of the classic doctor joke, "don't worry, this won't hurt me a bit") In the end I decided the cut off would be good motivation for me. It was terribly intimidating to run the first few Km with only a three person buffer between myself and the sweeper. I kept reminding myself to relax, start easy. Plenty of scenery to enjoy. Victoria is a lovely place and these Canadians sure know how to host a race.
There were some truly crazy supporters out there. One gent was dancing along singing about turkey. "ten pounds of turkey, ten pounds of turkey, ten pounds of turkey at the eeeeend!". It was a few more km down the road before the locals I was running with explained that this was thanksgiving weekend. I have no idea what Canadians are thankful for, but I didn't want to sound like a totally clueless American so I kept my mouth shut.
Happy Thanksgiving my Canadian friends!
Come on down for our Thanksgiving marathon, the Seattle marathon November 29th.
All was well for the first half of the marathon. I took it easy and kept a comfortable pace. My right IT band started bothering me, but I was not worried. After the half I decided to increase my pace a bit and was amazed at how good I felt. I started drinking my Cytomax at mile 14 and continued to eat Gu regularly. I felt my energy staying up and my body was pleased. As the race progressed I noticed that my right knee was was really starting to hurt. I thought I could give it a break by running towards the right side of the road, and sure enough, the slant of the road took a bit of pressure off of that leg. The hills were getting harder though. I found it increasingly difficult to bend my right leg without incredible pain. I tried to keep that leg as straight as possible to get up the hills, and that seemed to help. By mile 21.5 there was little I could do to avoid the pain. I kept checking my pace and my mileage and I was still looking at an easy finish under 5 hours. I did my best to move quickly, while trying not to aggravate the knee any further. I was happy to learn that I can limp at a good pace. The photos will tell, but I think I was smiling as I crossed the finish at 4h 51m...33 minutes faster than my last race.
Then we sat in the car for the next 6 hours...very bad idea.